Letter: Retrictive gun laws

Richard Badalamente's letter on Dec. 13 in favor of Initiative 594 (expanded background checks for firearms purchasers) reminded me of a segment on NPR a few days ago, featuring the director of Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

A lady (I'm not clear if she was another guest or a caller) stated that she now works in Boston to reduce criminal use of guns. She asserted that Massachusetts has restrictive gun laws but still has gun crime because Maine and New Hampshire have loose laws. This idea must be a mantra. Bloomberg and several Philadelphia mayors have been saying the same thing for years, although their bogeyman was usually Virginia. The mayors of Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles also blame someone else for facilitating their criminals.

What these big-city mayors never explain is why the villainous states with insufficient regulation of guns don't seem to suffer the same problems as Boston, etc.

Why don't the criminals and mentally ill commit their crimes where they (supposedly) get their guns? Is it possible the actual problem is a densely populated city or its politicians? Neither of these thoughts is politically acceptable. So, we better find a bogeyman to blame.

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